Franklin D. Roosevelt- "The Great Communicator" The Master Speech Files, 1898, 1910-1945
Series 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt's Political Ascension
File No. 492
1932 August 27
Seagirt, NJ - Campaign Speech ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR J'IWIKLIN D. ROOSJ!'IELT .lT SUGIRT, NEW JERSEY, SA'l'URD.&.Y, AOOUST 27,1932
I am part1oularl.'J happy to be the gueet today of my
old friend the Governor of New .Tereey. Thi a friendship is not
only a per sonal one between Governor Moor e and myself; it i s
als o an oftioial friendship because or the historic relatione
between New .Ter sey and !lew York, running beck into the Colonial
period when tor a time the two colonies had only one royal
The relations between the two atatea have been of an
intimate character marked by cordial relatione between them and
t heir executlvea. So it is now, and I hope -- and have
every reas on ror the hope ... - will continue to be.
In these latter days New .Ter sey and New York ~Stand out among all the states as the originators in a new form of cooperation and m utual aaa1etance Which has found practical demona trat1on in the Port .luthor1 ty. We iD New York recognize
juat aa you do in New .reraey that the greatest or -'merican harbors i e a herit age or both atataa, and in t his epi r1t of mutual recognition and cooperation, projects of the greatest importance to the buaineaa of the entire nation have been \ID.dertak:en and carried to a aucoeaaful oonolueion along linea of sound finance, ao\Uld planning and sound advantage to those wbo live on bOth a14ea - 2 - or the Harbor and the Hudson Ri.. er.
Kay this epiri t of cooperation continue in all the days
to come. I am confident that it will eo continue ae long as
the votere in both atatea aueta1n, ae they do now, the eo\Dld
Demooratio principle that etate attairs are beet administered
by the statee themeel.. ea. We in New Jersey and New York are
not afraid to trust the etatea even though the a&ninietration in
Washington, ae I shall show today, eeeme to doubt that the States
oan be trusted to administer their om affaire.
Once upon a time an o rator who was describing
the aoenery ot hie state remarked that in the North it wae
"U:OUNTAINEOUS" and tba t 1n the South it was "MOISTERIOUS".
'ntat olaado description reminds me of the
Repultlioan national ticket thia year, -- "HIGH J.ND DRr" at one
end and at the other end INCREASING MOISTURE.
BUT before I come to turther elucidation on
that point let me make another clear.
However we may differ aa to method, we all agree,
that tempttranoe i• -.: lw:La...one ot th.e cardinal virtues.
In dealing with the great aooial problema in my own atate, euoh
•• the oar. ot the warda ot the State, and tn oambatUna orille,
J ha"'• had to oonaider 110at tarnaatly tbia qUIIatlon ot t•permoe. - z-
It ia bound up with crime, with inaantty and, only too orten, w1 th poTert,". It 1• inoreaeingly apparent that the inteaperate
uae or into:zicante hae no place in this new mechanized civiliution
ot oura. In our tnduatrr, in our recreation, on our highways,
a drunken man ia more then an objectionable companion ... - he is
a peril to the rest or us. 'nle hand that controls the machinery
or our factories, that holds the steering wheel of our autanobilea,
and the brains that guide the course of tinance and industry,
should alike be tree t"rra the ertects of oYer-indulgence in
alcohol.
But the methods adopt ed since the great war wi tb the
purpose of achieving a greater temperance by the foreing of
prob1b1 tion have been aooompan1ed in most parts of the country by
complete and tragic failure. I need not point out to you tha t
general encouragement of lawlessness bas resulted; that corruption,
hypocrisy, crime and disorder have emerged, and that instead of
restricting, we have extended the spread of intemperance. This
failure has come tor this Tery good reason: • have depended too
largely upon the power or goTernmental action instead or recognizin&
that the authority or the home, the authority of t he school and
particularl7 the author! ty of the churches in these me ttera are
the fundamental tomejn which we must build. 'nle recent recogni t1on
ot this tact bJ the preaent adminiatratioll ie aD amu1q piece ot - 4 - b1Ddo1gh\, 'l!lere are others who ha.,.e had toree1&b'·
A triend ahowecl me recently an unpubliehed latter or Henry Cla7, written a hundred year• ago. In thia letter he ea14 that the moTement tor temperance "baa done great good and will continue to do more~; but"it will de stroy 1taelt wheneTer it resorts to ooer oion or mixes i n the politic-• ot the OO\mtrJ"•"
Another statesman, given to the nation by this atate or New J'eraey, pointed out this necessary oouree when f ederal proh1b1 t1on fir at became a great i ssue. President Wilson toreaaw
the ~ economic and social results of euoh e.n attempt.
It was not neoeaaary tor him to live through the disastrous
experience in order to come to the conclusion now oonteeaed by
our preaent President. In atatesmanehip an ounce ot
toreaight ia better than a pound or h indeigb.t. - B -
1be experience Of Dearly ODe hundred and titty years under the Conetitutton hae ehown ue that the proper means ot regul.ation i e through the atatee, ll'ith control by the federal govel'DIHnt
11mited to that which 1e neoesaary to protect the etatea in the exero1ae or their legtttmate powers.
'lhie I aul:lll.i t 1e the principle embodied in our
Demoorat1o platform; and I state further that i t
1a not the princi ple stat ed in the Republican plattora or in the epeeohea or aooep,anoe ot the two oanclidatee or the Republican party. -6-
!hie tiae of depreaaion baa oauaecl ua to see ft'tm 110re plainly than before not only the pol1t1oal and 110ral oonaequenoea of our action but Ua eoonc..io reeulta u well. We threw on the table u ~oils to be gaabled for by the en•iea of society the rft'e:a.ue that our goTernaent ha4 theretofore reoe1Yed, and the
UDderworld aoquired. unparalleled reaouroee therebr. !he 11\llti- plication of enforcement agencies created reaent•ent and a cynical and complacent attitude toward la:r: entoro•ent resulting :froa oonniTanoe between auoh agencies and the law breakera . The general. disregard for and defiance of euob. law of natiomride application bred d.iareepeot for other law. 1'he attempt to impose the practice of a Tirtue by aandate of the :fUndamental law, produced
AD attitude of intolerance to other foma of reetraint and a denial aYen of the bu1a of authority. '!'he T1olat1on of fundamental principles set in 110tion a chain of consequences that no one not politically blind could fail to see; and all the time a steady flow of profitl resulting from the exaotiona of a newly created
1ndu8try wu running into the pock: eta of racket eel'S. The only buai.ne11 of the oOUDtl'y that wu not helping to IUp])Ort the gcTerraent wae in a real aense being supported by the go?el'llllent.
!hi• wu the buainees that wu the direct product of the 18th aenctaent U14 the Yolatead law, - a bu8itieee .BIMIII!!!.. _..., ~ luoratiT~ ..- • a Tic1ou, ~ corl'\lpU.ng in itl -7-
s.nnuenoe on the entoro•ent agenotea of governaenl ......
to ,, .,., J eed fe til ...... -~ ... 11& 1-"·~~( Unqueettonably our tax burden would not be eo heaTJ nor " the toraa that it takea ao objectionable if aoae reuonable
proportion of the unaccounted a1111ona now paid to tboae whoae
buaineee baa been reared upon tbla atupendoue blunder could be
made &Yailable for the expenaea of goTernaent. ~Ofll-4*111'•--1'~11<16ez>en,
, • ..,.. t 11 no• prgg•·a
1 to- fat • fA!@!V* 1 fd!ij X!&d.
On thia eubject the two part1ea offer the voter• a genuine
choice tbta year. On the one band a definite method. of relief 1D
t he true Aaerloan tradition, with the etatea authorized to carry
out their pa.rt of the reapona1b111ty, and the nation doing what it
11 praotioally and consti tutlon&lly able to do. On the other aide,
nasion and 1n41reot1on.
I should be something lees than candid - in fact I ahould
be dieboneat - lf I did not in th1• oapaign oontinue to apeak
Tery plainly of theee eTUiona, 1ne1ncer1t1ee and. d.eoeptione •
.U I baYe repeatecUy po1nte4 out, Republican lead.ere are atte.pU.D£
to tight th11 battle with wor~. And in fighting with warda we
aay uae them either u a flaaing eword, frankly, boneetly and with
courage, to pr.. e hoae the oauae of truth, - or we may Ulll th• -a- u 8hielct., to turn u i de, eYade, and obatruot the attack of aa ad.,-enary. It ta in tbia latter aenaa that the Republioana b&YI been fighting a battle of words. llow a ah1eld. ia a bigger thing than a nord and ~ wb.en they would uee word.a u a defenee, they
11\llt \188 acre of them. 'litneee the Republican platform, - l ong, indirect, ambiguoua, ineinoere, fals e, oompared with the oonotee
alncerity of our own platform. And thie 11 eapeotally true of what they aq about prob1b11i1on. 'Ia firat have a long, rambling party pronouncement 1n the Republican platfora. And then we baTe long, raebllng explanat1ona of Ua meaning. Words upon words.
bas1ona upon evasions. Ine1noer1ty upon 1na1noer1ty. J. danae cloud of words. 'Ia rush into the cloud to find whether there 11 meaning and substance at the bottom of it all., and we find nothing.
When we emerge fro~:~ the cloud, •• aae another in the diatanoe and we rueh oYer to that. .And again we find nothing. And ao we rush from cloud to cloud and find at the bottom of each, nothing but dUit , meaningless, worthless dust, at the bottom of a cloud of word • ·
One of the atories that we learned in our youth was
that of the faaou.e Oracle of Delphi. In ancient Greece, 1t 1•
told, there wa.e a place where Yolcanio gae came forth from a
ornaeae in the earth. OYer th1a ore'W'UII the Pagana built a
tgple and direotlJ aboYe the tuaea ariaing froa the earth,
theJ aet the throne of the Oracle. When the Oracle ... part1all 7 - I
-v-
atupefiad by the polaou in the gaa, ehe uttered etraz&ge uu1
incoherent worda. The high priut:e of the temple were auppoeed
to tell the people the aeaning of tbeee incoherent worda. The
people neTer auspeotttd that the prieata were not poaaeaaed of a
real underatanding of theae worde and that they interpreted th•
to auit their own oonTenienoe. But great iaeuea were decided
by thia aetbod. Pagan kinga 011111 to the Oracle and on ita
incoherent mumblinga the fate of nations waa aometlm•ataked.
In June, the Republican Oracle eat in ~ioago. There
was a tume of heated oratory; clouds of prohibiti on propoaala
were aitted; the Resolutions Oommi~tee and the ConTention itself
auoCUI!lbed to the atupefying 1nfiuenoe. It uttered words in the
party platform - words and more words, till meaning waa loat and
reason elumbered. !nd then when the Convention ended &nd the people
asked the high priests of the party what it all meant, the anawera
were so diverse that one was tempted to BUSpeot the worst - tha'\
it meant nothing at all. 1'he Secretary of State explained in the
oboioest phraaea of Republican diplomacy; Senator Borah apot:e out
in hia forthright faahion and aaid it sounded wet to hia; Preside'\
Butler aaid the wo11de were 4ry.
I auepeot that thole wbo wrote that plant thought tba't it would aound dry to the drya and wet to the wete. But to the oonaternat1on of the high prteata it sounded dry to the weta and -1~
wet to the drya. !'hie wa.a Tery aeriou. indeed. 8oaeth1ng bad
'o be dono abou' u.
Well, aoaetblng wu done about it. ~. De.ooratlo party fairly and aquarely aet the laaue. It adopted, by an OTarwbelai:as
Yote, a pl8llk eo plain and olea.:r and boneat that no one could doubt
ita meaning and the oandtdatea accepted tbia atatement one hundred
per cent.
And then public opinion acTed by a true .American a.tt.1ratlan
tor braTe and honeat atate ment axpreaaed itael:f in no uncerta1n
te:rma. It lilted the Democratic platform. It liked people wb.o
~oke their mlnda. It liked courage and candor. This must haTe
been disturbing to the high prteata of the Republican party, but,
aa &111'871, they bea1tate4 and temporized. And then in the six
weeks folloWing the Demooratio ConYention, a Taat air of
expectancy .uzrounded. the White House. Rumore came forth that
the high prieata were to apeak. People were to be told at laat
the aeaning of what the June Oracle ha4 •aid.
There were difficulties in the way, beoau.ee the high
priests had often 8poken of thie eubjeot before. In 1928 the
Republican candidate for the Presidency •aid: •t do not faTor the
repeal of the eighteenth amendaent: • and, amplifying hie meaniDg
at that: time, he said: that it was •a great eooial u.d eoonoaio expertaent nobl e 1n motive and farreaohing 1n purpoae. •
Be brought: about the creation of the Coazdaaton on Law
:Enforc•ent and Obedience ccmpoeed ot •an able group of
diatinguiehed citizens of oharaoter and independence of thought, representative of different sections of the country. 1 When after
eighteen monthl of atnoere and painetaking work, thil CommtaaiOD. reported ita finding• to hill, he eul:aitted them to the Oongreaa
ooiiiJilending all of the minor findings of the Commieaion but not
apprortng of the Co11Dliaa1on'a propoaed revision of the eighteenth
amendment. j He condOIIIIled 1f:.i' ~a1nt pra1oe, thus: •It ohould ~ stimulate the cla:dfioation of the public mind and the ad.vano•en'\ of public tho\J8ht. 1 It did stimulate and clarify the public mind ~ '.k to the extent that 1t showed ..._ t hat what ~ bad long suspected was true, that national prohibition had not been and could not be
enforced. But it apparently did not stimulate and clarif7 the
Presidential mind becauae the White Houee, eo far aa prohibition waa concerned, fell into a deep silence. .U the Republican Oo~
Yention approached, aocordi!lg t o the newepapera of the tiae 1 appeal after appeal wu made to him and innumerable drafts of a prohib1t1Cil plank were aubmi tted to hta. Out of it all, came '\be inooberent utterance of the Chicago Oracle to which I haTe alluded.. c/M At last, o n the el eventh of August, the President spoke t o t he 1-- people. To a nyone who will read t he prohibition p~ank i n the
Republican platform and the remarks of the President on this question
1n his acceptance speech, the difficulty under which he l abors will
become obvious and the reason for his use of meaningless words will p,_ fw-t«-;6 became clear. It is the difficulty that attends sacrificing principles
f or vo t es, and attempting to oanoeal that fact b~the use or pussy- oat
the words. That statement oan be no better substantiated than by
President' s own statement that "I have always sympathized with the
hi gh purpose of the e ighteenth amendment." Does t hat spell out a
prohibitionist attempting to retain the support or the drys?
But the President has at last learned what the facts have shown
these many years -- that l aws opposed by majority sentiments •create
resentment which undermines enforcement and in t~e end produces
degene ration and crime." tly t he President This seems to mean state Home Rule . But apparen
do es not r eally believe in State Home Rule, if by the use of force
to believe t here can be effective federal control. He is wUling
i n the principle of state control only when •t he federal government
cannot get away from the destruction of state cont rol. '.7
His statement proceeds deliberately to misrepresent the position
of the Demcratic party, He says: "Our opponents pledge the
members of their party to destroy every vestige of constitutional and
effective federal control of the traffic. "
I have the right to assume that the President read the Democratic
platrom and on that assunption I charge that this statement was
made to mislead the people of this country and I assert that a
mere reading or the plain, unequivocal provisions of the Democratic
platform will sustain that charge. So that there can be no possible
misunderstanding, let me read the provisions of the Democratic
platform on this point. It begins:
"We advocate the repeal or the Eighteenth Amendmen t. To effect such repeal we demand that the congress immediately propose a constitutional Amendmant to truly representative conventions in the states called to act solely on that proposal, "
states to do: So much for repeal. Now what does it tell the "We urge the enactment of such measures by the several state• as will actually promote t emperance, effectively prevent the return of the saloon and bring the liquor traffic into the open under complete supervision and oontrol by the states. • 18
overlooked I t then clear ly states what the President either accidentally or deliberately misrepresented:
"17e demand that the Federal Governmen t effectively exercise its power to enable the states to protect themselves against importation of intoxicating liquors in violation of their l aws , "
It then goSB on to speak of the Volstead Law :
"Pend ing repeal, we favor immediate modification or the Volstead Act to legalize the manutacture and sale or beer and other beverages of such alcoholic content as is permissible under the constitution and to provide therefrom a proper and needed revenue,"
Thus the Democratic platform expressly and unequivocally opposes
the return of the saloon and with equal emphasis it demands that
there be federal control or the liquor traffic to protect so- called
to return to poT/er by dry states. Only on the theory of seeking these the mere use of words oan such statements of the President of
United States be explained. In the But meanwhile, another high priest has been beard from.
period following August eleventh, the anti- repealists in the Republican
party raised their voi ces in lamentation, like Jeremi ah of old: 19
heard "Th'\e is none~ comfort m\ all mine enemies hav of my~ouble; t~are glad ~u has do~it , "
The Republican candidate for Vice President beard this nm,...
He hastened to avow his devotion to the Republican platform
but he found in the words of the Oracle full justification
for the belief 20
toot the eighteent h amendment should not be repealed, And so, in the t rue spirit of those who in ancient times controll ed the
Oracle for their own ends, provi sion is made for all possible contingencies.
It is said that an ancient king when he consulted the Oracle as to the Jrobability of his suocess in a war that he was about to undertake, was told that if he went to war a great army would
not be destroyed. But he did not realize that the Oracle had made it clear that it might be his own army that would be destroyed.
oracle My friends , the hi gh priests have failed to inquire of t he
the answer to the question that the king of old, forgot.. A great
which army it army is to be destroyed, But they do not realize •
foot -- its at the same time. The Republican party had one
the other foot - candidate for Governor - on the wet horse and
its candidate for Lieutenant Governor, on the dry horse. The voters of New York s tate saw that it was a circus stunt / I 1 honest wets and honest drys, Democratic , Republican and I Independent - were disgusted. They threw the ticket i nto the discard.
This year the Republican national leaders have tried the same circus stunt. The answer of the voters throughout the
nation will be precisely the same.
In the last anal ysis, my friends , the prohibition issue
comes down to a question of faith and confidence in leadership
and in the words of leaders.
However people may differ as to the principle of prohibition,
national or state, they all will agree that e temporizing and
insincere policy i s disastrous not only to the cause of
prohibition but to that of temperance as well. The present
leadership stands convicted of attempting to evade and confuse
this i ssue. The hOnest dry will I know honor more the honest
wet than the shifty dry; and the anti- prohibitionist prefers, 22
I know, the four-square dry to the uncertain wet. All will
join 1n condemning a fearful and timid practice of evasion.
Here ae before I emphasize that the deep question in this campaign is one of confidence in leadershLp - - in leaders.
The measure of the truth of what they say i s what they have
said; the measure of what th~ will do is what they have done. SPEECH OF GOVERNOR FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT PROHIBITI ON Seagirt, New J ersey August 27, 1932
I am particularly happy to be the guest today of my old friend the Gov er nor of New J ersey. This friendship is not only a personal one between Governor Moore and myself; it is also an official friendship because of the hist or i c relations between New Jersey and New York, running back into t he Colonial per iod when for a time the two colonies had only one royal governor f or both provinces. The relat ions between the two states have been of an intimate character marked by cordial relations between them and between their executives. So it is now, and I hope - and have every reason f or the hope -- that it wil l continue to be. In thes e latter days New Jersey and New Yor k stand out among all the states as the o riginators of a new form of cooperation and mutual assistance which has found practical demonstr ation in the Port Authority. We i n New York recognize just as you do in New Jersey that the greatest of American harbors is the heritage of both states, and in this spirit of mut ual recognition and cooperation, projects of the greatest importance t o the business of the entire nation have been undertaken and carried to a successful conclusion along Franklln . h ;velt Library This is a t ranacr irt r. ndc by t he Wh i te House stenograph~!' f.·c:n hiA ellorthand notes t o.ken o.t tl:~ t ·r-:3 the epeFch was made . Un derlininl! .. ::.icat ea wo:·d.s ext empora."leC'.usly t C:dtd t o the p reviously prepar ed r eading ( ,py text. tore'"~"> in parentheses are words tho1t were omitted when the s peech ,-;as deliver ed, though t hey a ppear in the previously p repared l'eadin& copy tut. - 2 - lines of sound fin'nce, sound planni ng and sound advantage to those who live on both sides of the Harbor and of the Hudson River. May this spirit of cooperat ion continue in all the days to come . I am confident that it will so continue as l ong as the voter s i n bot h states sustain, as they do now, the sound Democr atic principle that st"te affairs are best administered by the states themselves. We in New Jer sey and New York a r e not afra id to trust the states even show though the admi nistr~t ion in ~ashington, as I shall todey, seems to doubt thQt the st~tes can be trusted to administer their OVID aff airs. Once upon a time an or.. tor l'lho w&s describing the scenery of his stnte remarked th;t in the North it was "mountai neous" and th!'t in the South it was •moisterious11 • That classic description reminds me of the Repub one end lican n~tional ticket this year -- "high and dry" at and at the other end " increasing moi sture•. But before I come to further elucidation on that point let me make another cl ear. However v.e may differ as to method, we all agree th too often, with poverty. It is increasingly apparent t hat the intemperate use of intoxicants has no place in this new mechanized civilization of ours . In our industr y , in our recreation, on our highways, a d r unken man is more than an objectionable companion -- he is a per il to the rest of us. The hand that controls the machinery of our factories, that holds the steering wheel of our automobiles, and the brains t hat guide the course of finance and industry, should alike be free from the effects of over-indulgence in alcohol. But the methods adopted since the Great War with the purpose of achieving a greater temperance by the forcing of Prohibition have been accompanied in most parts of the country by complete and t r agic failure. I need not point out to you that general encouragement of lawlessness has resulted; that corruption, hypocrisy, crime and disorder have emerged, and that instead of restricting, we have extended the s pread of intemperance. This failure has come for this ver y good reason: we have depended too lar gely upon the power of governmental action instead of r ecognizing t hat the authority of the home, the authority of the churches in these matters are the fundamental f orces on v;hich we must build . The recent recognition of this f act b y the present administrati on is an amazi ng piece of hindsight . There are other s who have had foresight. A f riend showed me r ecently an unpublished letter of Henry Clay, written a hundred years ago. In this letter - 4 - Clay said that the movement for temperance "has done great good and will conti nue t o do moren but "it will destroy itself whenever it resorts to coercion or mixes in the politics of t he country." Another statesman, given to the nation by this State of New J er sey, pointed out this necessary course when federal prohibition first became a great issue. President V/ilson foresaw the economic and social results of such an attempt. It was not necessar y for him t o live t hrough the disastrous experience in order to come t o the conclusion now confessed by our present President . In statesmanship an ounce of foresight is better than a pound of hi ndsight. The experience of nearly one hundred and fifty years under the Constitution has shown us that the proper means of regulation is through the states, with control by the federal government limited t o that which is necessary to pr ot ect the states in the exercise of their legitimate powers. This I submit is the principle embodied in our Democratic pl atform; and I state further that it is not the principle stated in the Republican platfor m o r in the speeches of acceptance of the two candidates of the Republican party. This time of depression has caused us to see even more pl ainly than before not only the political and moral consequences of our action but its economic r esults as well. We threw on the t able as spoils to be gambled for - 5 - by the enemies of society the revenue that our government bad theretofore received, and the underworld acquired un par alleled resources thereby. The multiplication of en forcement agencies created resentment and a cynical and complacent attitude t oward lax enforcement resulting from connivance between such agencies and the law br eakers. The general disregard for and defiance of such law of nation-wide application bred disrespect for other law. The attempt to impose the practice of a virtue by mandate of the fundamental law, produced an attitude of intolerance to other forms of restraint and a denial even of the basis of authority. The violation of fundamental principles set in motion a chai n of consequences that no one not politically blind could fail to see; and all the time a steady flow of pr ofits, resulting from the exactions of a newly created industr y was running into the pockets of racketeers. The only business of the country that was not helping to support the government was in a real sense being supported by the government. This was the business that was t he direct product of the 18th Amendment and t he Volstead law a business which is lucrative, vicious and corrupting in i ts influence on the enforcement agencies of gover nment. Unquest ionably our tax burden would not be so heavy nor the f orms that it takes so objectionable if some reason able pr oportion of the uncounted millions now paid to those - 6 - whose business has been reared upon this stupendous blunder could be made available for the expenses of government. On this subject the two parties offer the voters a genuine choice this year. On the one hand a definite method of relief in the true American tradition, with the states authorized t o carry out their part of the respon sibility, and the nation doing what it is practically and constitutionally able to do. On the other side, evasion and indirecti on. I should be something less than candid -- in fact I should be dishonest - - if I did not in this campaign continue t o speak very plainly of these evasions, insincer ities and deceptions. As I have repeatedly pointed out, Republican leaders are attempting to fight this battle with words. And in fighting with words '"e may use them either as a flaming sword, frankly, honestly and with courage, to press home the cause of truth -- or we may use t hem as shields, to turn asi de, evade and obstruct t he attack of an adversary. It is in this l att er sense t hat the Republicans have been fighting a battle of words . Now a shield is a bigger thing than a sword and so when they would use words as a defense, they must use more of them. Witness the Republican plat form, - - l ong, indirect, ambiguous, insincere, false, compared with the concise sincerity of our own platform. And this is especially true of what they say about Prohibition. We fir st - 7 - have a long, rambling party pronouncement in the Republican platform. And then we have long, rambling explanations of its meaning. Words upon words. Evasions upon eva sions. Insincerity upon insincerity. A dense cloud of words. We rush into the cloud to find llhether there is meaning and subst ance at the bottom of it all, and we find nothing. When we emer ge from the cloud, we see another in the distance and we rush over t o that. And again we find nothing. And so we rush from cloud to cloud and find at the bottom of each, nothing but dust, meaningless, worthless dust, at the bottom of a cloud of words. One of the stories that we learned in our youth was that of the famous Oracle of Delphi. In ancient Greece, it is told, there was a pl ace wher e volcanic gas came forth from a crevasse i n t he earth. Over this crevasse the Pagans built a temple and directly above the fumes arising from the earth, they set t he throne of the Oracle. Vfuen the Oracle wa s partially stupefied by the poisons in the gas, she uttered strange and incoherent words . The high priests of the temple were supposed to tell the people the meaning of these in coherent words. The people never suspected that the priests were not possessed of a real understanding of these wor ds and that they interpreted them to suit their own convenience. But great issues were•decided by this method. Pagan kings came to the Oracle and on its incoherent mumblings the fate of nations was sometimes staked. - 8 - In June, the Republican Oracle sat in Chicago. There was a fume of heated oratory; clouds of prohibition proposals were emitted; t he Resolutions Committee and the Convention itself succumbed to the stupefying influence. It uttered words in the party platform -- words and more words, till meaning was lost and reason slumbered. And then when the Convention ended and the people asked the high priests of the party what it all meant, the answers were so diverse that one was tempted to suspect the worst -- that it meant nothing at all. The Secretary of State explained in the choicest phra ses of Republican diplomacy; Senator Borah spoke out in his forthright fashion and said it sounded wet to him; President Butler said the v;ords were dry. I suspect that those who wrote that plank thought that it would sound dry to the drys and VIet to the wets. But to the consternation of the high priests it sounded dry to the wets and wet t o the drys. This was very serious indeed. Something had to be done about it. Well, something was done about it. The Democratic party fairly and squarely met the issue. It adopted, by an overwhelming vote, a plank so plain and clear and honest that no one could doubt its meaning and t he candidates accepted t his st atement one hundred per cent. And then public opinion, moved by a true American admiration for brave and honest statement, expressed itself - 9 - in no uncertain terms. It liked the Democratic platform. It liked people who spoke their minds. It liked courage and candor. This must have been disturbing to the high priests of t he Republican party, but, as always, they hesitated and temporized. And then in t he s ix weeks follow ing the Democratic convention, a vast air of expectancy surrounded the White House. Rumors came f orth that the high priests were t o speak. People were to be told at last the meaning of what the June Oracle had said. There were difficulties in the way , because the high priests had often spoken of this subject before. In 1928 the Republican candidate f or the Presidency said: "I do not f avor the repeal of the eighteenth amendment•, and, amplifying his meaning at that t ime, he added that it was •a great social and economic experiment noble i n motive and far-reaching in purpose". He brought about the creation of the Commi s sion on Law Enforcement and Obedience composed of •an able group of distinguished citizens of character and independence of thought, representative of different sections of the country". When, after eighteen mont hs of sincere and painstaking work, this Commission reported its findings t o him, he submitted the report to the Congress commending al l of the minor findings of the Commission but not approving of the Commission's pro posed revision of the eighteenth amendment. - 10 - He condemned the report with faint pr aise, thus: 11 It should stimulate the clarification of t he public mind and the advancement of public thought. " It did stimulate and clarify the public mind t o the eA~ent that it showed it that what it had l ong suspected was true, that national prohibition had not been and could not be enforced. But i t apparently did not stimulate and clarify the Presidential mind because the White House, so f ar as prohibiti on was concerned, fell int o a deep silence. As the Republican Convention approached, according to the newspapers of t he time, appeal after appeal was made to him and i nnumerable drafts of a prohibition plank were submitted t o him. Out of it all came the incoherent utterance of the Chicago Oracle to which I have alluded. At l ast, on the eleventh day of August, the President spoke to t he people. To anyone who will read the prohibition plank in the Republican platfor m and t he remarks of the President on t his question in his accept ance speech, the difficulty under which the President labors will become obvious and the reason for his use of meaningless wor ds will become clear. It is the difficulty that always attends sacrificing principles for votes, and attempting t o conceal that fact by the use of pussy-cat wor ds. That statement can be no better 11 substantiated t han by the President ' s own statement that I have always sympathized with the h igh purpose of t he eighteenth - 11 - amendment". Does that spell out a prohibitionist attempt i ng to retain the support of the drys? But the Pr esident has at l ast learned what the facts have shown these many years -- t hat laws opposed by majority sentiments "create resentment which undermines enforcement and in the end produces degeneration and crime". This seems t o mean state Home Rule. But apparently the President does not really believe in state Home Rule, if by the use of force there can be effective Feder al control. He is willing t o believe in the principle of State control only when the federal gov er nment cannot get away with the destruction of State control. His statement pr oceeds deliberately to mi srepre 11 sent the position of the Democratic party. He says: 0ur opponents pledge the members of their party to destroy every vestige of constitutional and effective federal control of the traffic. " I have the right to assume t hat the President read the Democratic platform and on t hat assumption I charge that this statement v.as made t o mislead the people of this country and I assert that a mere reading of the pl ain, unequivocal provisions of the Democratic pl atfor m will sustai n that charge. So that there can be no possible mi sunderst anding, let me read the provisi ons of the Democratic platform on this point . It begins: - 12 - 11\'/e advocate the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. To effect such repeal we demand that the Congress immediately propose a Constitutional Amendment to truly representative conventions in the states called to act solely on that proposal. " So much for repeal. Now what does it tell the states to do: •We urge the enactment of such measures by the several states as will actually promote temperance, effec tively pr event the return of the saloon and bring the liquor traffic i nt o the open under complete supervision and control by t he states. n It then clea rly states what the President either accidentally overlooked or deliberately misrepresented: "VIe demand that the Feder al Government effectively exercise its power to enable the states to protect themselves against importation of intoxicating liquors in violation of their laws." It then goes on to speak of the Volstead Lew: "Pending repeal, we f avor immediate modification of the Volstead Act to l egalize the manufacture and s ale of beer and other beverages of such alcoholic content as is permissible under the Constitution and to provide therefrom a proper and needed revenue. • Thus the Democratic pl atform expressly and un equivocally opposes the return of the saloon and with equal - 13 - emphasis it demands that there be federal control of the l i quor traffic to protect dry states. Only on the theory of seeking to return to power by the mere use of words can such statements of the President of these United States be explained. But, meanwhile, another high priest has been heard from. In the period following August eleventh, the anti repealists of the Republican party raised their voices in lamentation, like Jeremiah of old. The Republican candidate for Vice-President heard this wailing. He hastened to avow his devotion to the Republican platform but he found in the words of the Oracle full justification for the belief that the eighteenth amend ment should not be repealed. And so, i n the true spirit of those who in ancient times controlled the Oracle for their own ends, pr ovision is made for all possible contingencies. It is said that an ancient King when he consulted the Oracle as to the probability of his success in a war that he was about to undertake, was told that if he went to war a great army would be destroyed. But he did not re alize that the Oracle had not made it clear that it might be his own army that would be destroyed. My friends, the high priests have f ailed to inquire of the Oracle the answer to the question that the King of old, forgot . A great army is to be destroyed. But they do not realize which army it - 14 - is to be. In New York State in 1930 there was a party The 1~hich tried to ride two horses at the same time. Republican party had one foot -- its candidate for Governor -- on the wet horse -- and the other foot its candidate for Lieutenant Governor, on the dry horse. The voters of New York State saw that it was a circus stunt -- honest wets and honest drys, Democratic, Republican and Independent -- were disgusted. They threw the ticket into the discard. This year the Republican national leaders have tried the same circus stunt. The answer of the voters throughout the nation will be precisely the same . In the last analysis, my friends, the prohibition issue comes down to a question of faith and confidence in leadership and in the words of leaders. However people may differ as to the principle of prohibition, national or state, they all will agree that a temporizing and insincere policy is di sastrous not only to the cause of pr ohibiti on but to that of temperance as well. The present leadership stands convicted of attempting to evade and confuse this issue. The honest dry will, I know, honor more the honest v:et than the shifty dr y ; and the anti prohibitionist prefers, I know, the four-square dr y to the uncertain wet . All will join in condemning a fearful and timid pr actice of evasion. - 15 - Here, as before, I empha size that the deep question in this campaign is one of confidence in leadership in leaders. The measure of the t r uth of what they say is what they have said; the measure of what they will do is what they have done. 223 AU8\1St 27, 1932 Speech. sea::;irt , N.J. nd the Gov I am particularl,y happy to be the guest today of fi1¥ old frie one between Gov ernor of Udw Jeraey. This friendshi p is not only a personal u se of the his ernor t:oore and myself; it is also an official friendship beca into the Colo toric relations between New Jersey and New York, nu1ning back yal governor for nial period wh en for a time the two colonies had only one ro both provinces. chara cter The rel ati on s between the two states have been of an intimate eutivea. s o it marked by cordial relations between them and between their e:.r.e it will continue is now, and I hope--and have every reason for the hope--that to be . g all the states In these latter days New Jersey and !lew York stand out amon as... istance wh i ch as the originators of a new form of cooperation and mtual \/e in New York recog has found practical demonstrat i on 1n the Port Authority. an ba.roors is the nize just as you do in Kew Jersey that c. he greatest of ~·uneric and cooper heritage of ooth states, and in this spirit of mutual recognition of the enti re nat ion ation, projects of the greatest i mportance to the business lines of been undertaken and carried t o a successful conclusion alone have live on bothsides sound finance, sound planning and samd advantage to those who of the Harbor and of th e Hudson 'River. como . I am L:.ay this spirit of cooperation cor.ti nue in all the ue,ys to ooth stat~::~s sus confident that i t will so continue u.s long as t he voters in affairs are tain, tt s they do now, the sound Democratic principle that stace i n Hew Jersey and New York b -;:~ st adJ:li nistered. by the states themsel ves. \.e in Vlashins are not afraid. to trust the states ttven though the administration can be li rusted to ton, a s I sha.tl show today, seems co doubt t hat the states administer the ir own uffairs. his stute Onco upon a time an ora tor who was describing the sc enery of 11 the South it was rema rked t hat i n the North it was '':.OU I'.• lliEOU$ and that in "l:OI S'FERIOUS . " ticket t claseic description reminds ce of t he Rep.lolican national Tha L'Ois thie year, --"HI GH ,JIDDRY" at one end and at t he oth er end "INCRE~.sn;c TURE. " me make an 3UT before come to fu.rther elucidation on that point let other clear. is one Howeve r \\8 mB3 di f fer a s to method , •· e all agree tha t temperance in 11\Y of tho cardinal virtues. In dealing with the great social problems in comba't ting own State, such a s t he c a re of the OJara.a of the State, a n ti. oi' temperance. It crime, I have had to consider most earnestly this qu &stion with p•verty. is bou.nd up with crime, with insanity and, on ly too often, 223 ( Cont 'd) >. It is increas1J18ly apparent that the intemperate Use of intoxicants haa no place in this new mechanized civilization of ou.rs. Incur i ndustry • in our recr eation, on ou r hit)hways, a drunken man ia more than an objectionable com panion--he is tt peril to th~ r~st of us. The hand t hat controls the machin ery of our fact ories, that holds the steering whuel of our automobiles, and the brains that guide the c ourse of firwme and indust ry , should u like be f ree from the offecta of over- indul gence in alcohol • .aut the methods adopted s ince t he Great War with the pu. r pose of a chiev i ng a greater temperance by the forcing of Prohibition have be ·n accompon ied in most ports of the ccuntry by complete and tras ic failure . I need not point out to yw that general encouragement of lawlessness ho e resulted; that corruption , hypocrisy, crime Lind d isorder have emerged, und that instead of restricting, .. a have extended the spr ead of intemperance. Thistailure has come for this very good reason: ·.:e ha ve depended. too largel y upon the power of s:ovar nmental a ction instead of recoe;nidng that the authority of' the home , t he authority of the school and pa, rticularly the outhority of the churches in t hese mat ters ure the fundamenta l f orces on which we nu.st build. The r ecent r ecognition of this fact by t he present administration is a n alll8zinc ptece of hindsight . There are others who havo had f oresight . A friend showed me rec ently an unpubl181£ed let ter of Henry Clay, rJrit ten a hundred. years ttgo. In this l etter Clay s~:~id tha't the movement for teu:.perance "has done gr eat good end will c ont i nu e to uo more" bu.t "it will destroy itself wh onever it resorts to c oercion or mi~es in the poliliics of t he country." .. nether stateellllln , given to t he ne'tion by t h i s State of I.dw Jer sey , point ed. out thi s n ecessary c ourse \loi1en feder al pr ohibition first oecame a great i .. su.e. ?r es ident lt.' ilson f oresaw t he economic und social results of such an at t e mpt . I t wa e. not necessary f or h~m to live 'through the disastrou.s exper ience in or der to c ome to the concl usion now confe s sed ·oy our pr esent Presi dent . I n statesmanshi p an 0\.Ulce of ±ore sight is b et'ter than a pound of h ind sight. 1he ex.1n~ rience of nearly one hunu.red. und. 1'ifty J ears Wlder the ~ onstitu tion hhs snown us t hat the proper means ot' re0ou.bti on is thrCJ\.tgh the stutes, with control by the f e ... er a l govarill.llent limited to t hat which ie l.eces_ary to protect t ile s t ate' in t he axercise of titeir l e_;itimate pov-ers. r.~,rh is I sub mit is tohe pr i nciple o::woodied in our ..Jemocratic platforlll; ana. I s tate further t hat i t is not the principl e stated in the .:t epu.blican plat f or m or in the s p~:: eches o:t' acc~pt ancd Ol the two canO.idates of t ho ~ epublican party. '11his time of depre:Jsion has cttused us to see even more plainly than be fore no't only the polit ical and mor a l con sequences o f our action but its e conomic results as welL We threw on the table as spoils to be e;ambl ad for by the anemi as of society the revenue that our .;overnuent hod theretofore re- ceived, end t he under-wor l d acquir ed. unpura lleled. resources thertrby. he Jrulti ~ lication of enforcement agencies created resent ment and :.. cynical and compl acent atti t ude toward l ux enforcement resulting from connivance between such ~genci es t~nu the l a• orauH:ers . +he gen.·ral disregara for tond. defiance of 6uch lt~w of nation- wide application oreu disrespect f or other l a w. The att err.pt to impose the pr actice of virtue by n.-.andat e of t he f"unda.mental law, produced an atti t ude of int olerance to other forms of r estraint and. denial even of the busis of authority. The v i olation of 1\tuda.mantal principles set 223 (Cent 'd) cally olind cruld. motion a chain of consu~uunc~s thGt no one not polilO i in f r om the fail to see; and all tha time a stead.y flow of profits, resulting the pockets of rack exactions of u newly created industry , -was runni ng into to support eteers. .:he only oua.lness of t he cruntry tht.~t was not helping rnment. ..hia the government wa .. in a r eal sense uei ng supported oy the gove endment t..nd "tho wus the busine.... s that waa the a.irect pr oduct of the 18th . .m corruptin;; in its Volste.Jd law,--a business whi ch is lucru :.ive, vicious and. i nfluence on thd enforcement agencies of g overnment. forms that ·nquestionaoly our tax burden would not be so heavy nor the of t.ha WlCour.t eu. it takes so objectionable if sane rea sonable proportion upon this stupen millions now paid to t hose whose business has been reared rnment. dous blur:.der could be made available for the expenses of gove choice this On t his subject the two parties offer the voters u genuine the tru.e .American tra year. On the one h~nd a definite method. of relief in of the responsi diti on, with the states authorized to carry out their pa rt able bility , anci tho ruttion doing what it 18 pr acticall,y and constitutionall,y to do . On the other side, evasion and indirection. e dishonest- I should oe somet hi ng less than candid--in foot I should o of these eva if I did not in t h is ce.mpaisn ccntinue to speak very plainly pointed ou.t , Re sions, insincerities and a.eceptions. As I have repeatedly words. And in publican leaders are attel!.pt i ne to f ight hhis battle with r d. , frankly, hon fightint; with wora.s we may use them either as a f laming swo or we may use them estly and with cour age . to press home t he cause of truth,-- of ttn adversary. as shields, to turn asiue, evade, and obstruct the attack fighting a battle It is in this l atter sense th6.t the Republicans have been so when they would of wor ds. Now a shield is a bigser thing thttn a sword and s the Republican use words as a defense. they rml.St use more of them. \j itnes , insincere, false, com~red with the con plutform,--lOI18 1 indirect, ambiguous y true of wha t they cise sincerity vf our own pl atform. ..md this is especiall pr onouncement in say about Prohibition. We first have a lona , rambliJ1G party explanations of its the Republi can platform. And then -.e have lont;, rambling upon insin meaning. ords upon words. Evasi ons upon evusi ons. Insincerity f ind whether ther e cerity. ...:. dense cloud of words. .Je ru.ah into t he cloud to nothing. hen i s meaning and substance a.t the oottom of it all, ,_mQ. we find nd \l8 rush over to we emerg e f rom the clouJ., we see anot her in the d istance to to cloud and f ind t h at. ..nd again -. e 1'1na. nothiJl8 . .bnd so we rush from cloud. \IOrt hless iust, at the at the bott om or e·.~h , nothing but dust, meaningless, bottom of a cloud. words. t he facoue Vne of the stories that we learned in our youth was that of' , there was a place where ~cl e of J.;elphi. In ancient Cr oece , it i s tol d O r Jver this crevasse the volcanic gee came fort h f rou tt crevatsse in the eart h. from the earth , Pagans built a t8!ilple and directly above the t'wnes urieing rti a lly stupefied t h ey set the throne of the Oracle. ..hen the Or acle wus pa words. ..:'he by the poisons in the gas, she uttered stra.nae and i ncoherent the meaning og high priests of the tomplo wore suppose~ to toll the people e priests were these incoherent wor ds. ..he people never suspected that th interpret ed not poss essed. of a rea l u.nd.erstanciine; of these wor a.a and they h e Oracle and on them to ..uit their own convenience. .Pugan kings came to t staked. ita incoherent lli.Uilblings the ft.~ te of nations was som× 223 ( Cont ' d J a f\une of heat In Ju.ne, the Republietin Oracle sat in Chicago ~ There was ne ea. ortttory; clouds or prohi bition proposale were emitted; the ~esolutio influence. It Cou:mittee .:mu the Convention itself succumbed to the stupefying till meanina was uttered words in the pttrt.Y platform-- words and more words, d and the people lost and r euaon shunbered.. .nnd then when the Convention ende answers were so asked the high priests of the party what it all meant, the nothing at diverse that one was tempted to suspect the worst--that it meant choicest phrases of R&~Ublican all . ~ l'h e Secretary of ... tate explained in the ttnu said it diploroacy; Senator Borah spoke out in his i'orthri(;ht fashion sounded .. at to hiau; .President Bu.t ler eai d the words were dry. would sound I suopect tlult t hoso who wr ote that plank thought that it i on of the high dry to the drys and wet t o the wets. .But to the consternat hia was veryser priests it sounded dry to the weta and wet to the drya.. '.1' ious indeed. Something htld to be d.. one a bout it. and nell, somethi..g wus u.one about it. .,the Democratic party fairly e, a plank eo squarely met the issue. lt adopted, by an overwhelming vot ng and the can plain and clear and honest that no one coul d dou.bt its meani didates accepted this statement one hundred por cent. f or crave ,I.D.d then P\lblic opinion, moved by a true iU!I&rican admiration s. It l i ked the and honest statement expr esse d itself in no uncertain term . It liked cour Democratic platform. It liked people \':ho spoke their minds priests of the age and candor. '2his aust have been disturbing to the high • .rilld. then Re:(:Ub lican party, but , as always, they hesitatau. ... nd temporized o.ir of e xpect in the six weeks following the 1J emocrt~ t ic Conventi on, a vast high priests ancy surrounded the \ihite House. Rumors came forth that the of what tho June were to speak. ,tleople woro to be told. at last 10he meaning Oracle had said. ts had often There were difl iculties 1n the way, oecause the high pries e for the spoken of this subject before. .m 1928 the Republican candidat amendment;" Presidency said: "I do not favor t he repeal of the ui ght ..:enth was a "great and, ampldi fyine his meaning at that time, he added that it. in 9J.r social and !o'COnotnic experiment noole in motive and fa r - reaching pose." und He brou.ght about the creation of the Comruission on Law Dlforcemant of char- Obed.iencu composed of " an able group of d i stinguished citizens sections or the acter and independenoo of thoue:;ht, reprasentati ve of U. i fferent work, country." \,hen after eighteen months of sil" ' 'Jre and p~ instaking he submitted t he report to t he thie ~ ommi s eion reported ite findings to h:b, out not ap Cons ress coamonding all of the minor .. inu.ings of the Commission eenth amendment . proving of the ..: oumi ssion' s proposttd r evision of the eit;ht stiiiD.llate He condemned t he r eport wi th f aint praiel;j, thus: "It shou.ld public thought." the cla rification of the pu.blic mind and the advancement of tha t it showed It did stinu.late and cla rify t he public mind to t;he extent prohibition had it thbt what it had long suspected was tru.e , that nuti onal not s'C i nu.late not bean and could not be on.t orcad. 3 t it app..1 r ontly uid. s o f ar a e pro and cla rify t h e .iresidenti al mind ae~u ue the hite House, ..s the Repu.blican on hibition was con~.: erned, f ell into u dl~>.' P silence. of the time . a ppeul a fter vention appro~:~.ched , uc \.: ordin8 t,o the news papers plank '"'ere a ppeal .....a s tlll:lda to h i m a nd inntLrnerable dfafta of a prohioi'tion submitted to hiln. Out of it all 223 (Cont •d ) S" alludeu . came the incoherent u~. teranctt of tho ~ilicago Orucle to w tich 1 have At last , on the eleventh day of Augu.st , the President apot:e to the people. To anyone who will reua the pr ohibition plank in the nepu.blican pl 4tform and the remarks of the .President on this question in his acceptance epeech, the difficulty under which the President laoors will become obvious ra nd the rca son l or his use of meaningless words will become clear. I t i s the Cl.i f f'iculty to con that always attends aacrifici~ principles for vote s , and atter::~ptins be no oett.er ceal that ft~ct oy t he use ot pu.!:!sy- cat wor a.e . Xbat sta tement can suoatant !ated -chan oy the President's own statement that "I have always sym 11 pathized. with the high ,t1!J.r posa of the eighteenth tlmendment • .l)oes that spell oat a prohibitionist attempting to retain tne support of the drys? 3ut tho Pr esident has at last learned. what tho f8cts have shown these m.aey years- - that. la.Js opposed. oy ClUjorit y sentiments ,,cr eate resentment which Ul1C1erm.:..nes "'nforcdment and. 1n the ,nd prOd.uces degeneration and crime. " This eeems t.o mean Stat.e .:oma _;ule. But apparemtly the Pr esident uoes not roally l)olieve in ... tate f owe u.le, if oy the use of force there can oeef factive eaeral control. ..a is v.·illin.g t.o oelieve in the principle of t t~ te control only when the federul gover nment canno-c get away vith the uestruction of tate control. Hi s statement proceed.3 delioerbtely to misraprttsent the positicm of tha ..... amocrutic party. :!a says; "OUr opponents ~ledge the members of their purty of to destroy every vestige of constitutio~l and e ffective feder a l contr ol t he t r affic. ·• 1 have the right to asswne that the President read tho Democratic plat form and on th8t ussu.Wption I charge that t his statan.leJ.lt na ... made to mislead the people of this country and I assert that a merd r ettding of the plain, un equivocal provisions of tile J)emocr.•tic plut:"orz:J will sustain that charge. So that there can oe no possible Ulisunder ... tanding, let ce read theprovisions of the Democratic platforn1 on tbi s point. It begins: "We advocate t b.e repeal of the ..:J.£hteenth Awend.ment . 2o eftect such r So JIUch for repeal. I.ow what does it toll the stutos to do: "Vje urge the enactment oi' such measures oy the sever t. l stetesas will actually prooote temperance, effect ively prevent t he return of the Sti loon unt.i. oring the liquor trttffic into the open under supervision und. cmtrol OJ" the states." It then clearly stat&s wl"la't tne President ei'ther accidentally over l ooked or ueli ueratel,y misrupresented: "Ve demand that tho Federt~l Goverru.1ent effectively exercise its power to enable t he states too protect theJJselvea against i mpor tation of intoxicatina liquors in violation of their laws . " It then goee on to speak of the Volateud Law : "Pendint: repeal, we ft~vor iD£ldd.1ate modification of the Vel at ead Act to lasalize the meuru.fb cture and SL le of boor o.nd 22~ ( Cont ' d ) ~ other oeverages of such alcoholic content t; S is por .. J. eible under the Comrtitution and to provide therefrom Ll proper t~.nd needed revttnue. " Thu s the JemocrtJ.tic pl atform expressly and unequivacall,y opposes the re turn of tl.e sel oon un..1. with equal ecph.a sis it d.emonds that there be federal control of the liquor truffle to protect d.ry states. Only on the theory of seekin~ to return to power by the mere u se of words can ouch stt.tement_ of t he Pre91dent of t hese United States l:l e explained.. 3ut mean•. hile, another hish priest ha s oeen hear d from. In the period following Jlugust tt leventh, the a.nti-repealiats in t he Republican party l'U is ed. thctir voices in l amenttition, like Jeremiah of ol<1 • ... he Republican cand1Wlte f or Vice-President heard this wailing . He has tened. to avow his devotion to the Republican platform but he f ound in the wora.s of t he Or t:t cle t'u.l l ju.at if'iC It i s aaid tha t un ancient kirlJ '"hen he consulted. t h e Oracle a e to t he probubility of his suce ~ s in tt wa r that he wa s about to undertake, was told tht~ t i f he went to war ta g.reat a rmy woul u .je destroyed. But he did not real ize that t h e Oracle had n ot ma de it c lear t hat it mi ght ·oe h is ovm to~ rmy t hat would oe destroyed. :3 friends , the h.ieh priests heve i'ailedto inquire of the Oracle t ho ana .. er to the que~ tion thc.t t he ki ng of' olo.. , f orgot. A great urmy i s to be destroy &d.. 3ut t hey do not realize which it is to oe. In n ew Yor k state in 1930 t her e was a party ..-hich tried to ride two horses &t the same time. Tne Republican party had one foot-- its candidnte f or Governor-- on the w&t hor se- -and t he other f oot--i ts candidate for Li .JU tenant Governor , on the dry horse. .o.1h e voters of ltew York State saw that it was a circus stunt--honest wets and honest drys, - - Democratic, Republican and Indepena.ent--were uiagusteJ.. ..L1hey threw the ticket i nto the d iacard.. •'his year tne .Hapublic.:n national leaders have tri ad the same c ircus stur.t • .·he ans'..er Of tlltt voters t hrougnout the nat ion will w9 pr ecisely the same. In the l a st analyeis, !If¥ frienus, the prohibition i ~sue coce:s down to a que stion of faith und confidence in leadership and in tha ~.. orde oi' le... d- e rs. ;rowever people may O..i ffer us to t he principle of pr ohibition, nationel or state, t h ey all will &t gree that a tewporizing and i neincere policy ia disastrous not onl,y to the cause of prohibiti on but to that of temperunce as well . 11he present lead ership stands convicted of to~ttempt ing to evade aud. confuse the issue. ·rhe honest ury will , I know, n onor more t ne honest wet than t he shifty dry; unJ. the !Inti- prohibitionist prefer s , 1 know, the four- square dry to the u.ncertoin wet . All will join i n condemning a f etJ J· fu.l und timid practice of evto sion. 22~ (Cont ' d) 1 campHign is Here as before I empht.~a i ze the. t tho deep question in thts. of one of confidence in leadership--in leaders. .L.'he measure of the t ruth d.o is 'hhat they say i s ..r.at they have said; the measure of Y.. hat they will what they have done. Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. at Seagirt, New Jersey, Ausuot 27, 1932 1 0 no~ ao~ ~:!i~~~~~. hatt1a t~r~n~~=ir:t .~a!nf; -:r ; :eo~!r :n~~c::~ t:o,·ernor )lloore and myself; it Ia also a n official frlend11hip because of the hi&toric relationB between New J ersey and New York, running hac.k into the Colonial period when for a time the two colonies had only one royal governor for both provinces. The relations betwe-en the two &taUs ha\·e bee.n of an intimate character marked by cordial relations beh·een them and between their esecutivea. So it con is DOM', and 1 hope-.nd han e,•ery reason for tl1e l1ope--that it will tinue to be. In the11e Jatll'r dan: ~ew Jn·w ,- and Ne\\" York stand out among •11 the states as the or'iJ!inatora of a new furm of eo-operation and mutual aill>istarn.-e which haa found Jlraetical demonstration In the Port Authorltr. \\'e in Sew York r« So much for npeal. Now what does it tell t.be atat.e. to do: We urge the enactment of such measure. by the ttveral atata u wUJ actuall1 promote temperance, etredi1'ely pre,·ent. the return of the ~&loon and brmg the liquor traffic in to the open under complete IUpt-"l&loo and control by the atata. Ji then dearly atatee what the President either aecldent.ally ovt.rlookt!d. or · deliberately nliareprHented: We demand that the Federal g•wernment eff~tively eurci&e IU power to euable the Btate' to J•rotect themsehea agat.intot importation of iotoxl· eating liquore in \'lOiatioo of their law1. H. then goea on to IIJieak of the Volstead Law:. Pending reJJeal, we favor imn1ediately modifiCAtion of the VoiRtud Act. to legalize the manufacture a nd sale of ~er and other beveragea ~ ~~~~!.\d~lc;;:~~~~fro~~n!e;;~o ~!r i! 11~>e~:;~JI:e,.~~~:~ t he Con11titution and 'J'huH the l>emO<'ratic platform expr~s.;ly And unequivocally oppot;ea the relurn of the uloon and with equal f'lll)lhll~i~ it demand• t hat there be . federal control of the liquor t raffic to proteCt dry statet. Only on the theory cf setki11g to return to power by the mere use of words can 1ucb lt.&tement.t of the President of the&e United States be explained. But meanwhile, another high print hu bH:n hE>ard from. In the period :~~~i~"'!~f~u1~1Uf!.:!~~=~~~. t::~eaJ~i;;~~li~f0 ;~, the Republican Party railed The ReJJUbliea u eandidate for Vi«·President heard thl1 wailing. Be r:·::~e:o::. ~:·~~e ~:at~!''f,~:r'ju!~ili~~io~e}~'~1~h:nbe.fi 1:r~~ t~~t E~;b::.r:: f:":~:i~~~'\i~;::':O,~;~~~~ r~~.~~~~~~cl~"-f!r ~e:~ !~~~ t;~;.~P~;!~:fo!hi:m~~: for all ~1 ible oontingencie&. ho!:::~ ~~:r~A~I~at:j,~:. 19~e t~e:;~u~·~e~n8 r.~:: h:~ic!n!rl;!~l~d~a!~ date for IJo,·ernor_,n the wet hM,t'-and the other foot-iu candidate for Llentenant-Go,·ernor, on the dry horM. Unfortunately the ·horRet insisted upon going in ditrerent directions and the party fell to the ground bet.wtfll thf'm. Thill l'ear the Republican natioual leader" l1ne t ried the 11ame eircu1 lflunt. The anSwer of the \'olen throughout the ~ation will be precisely the aame.. In the Jut analysi11, my friend11. the p•·ohibition i86ue come. down to a fJUt' ~ tinn of faith and confid{'nfi! in leaduship tlnd in the YtOrda of leadert. Dowe\'er IJCOple may differ as to thf' principle of prohibition, national or alate, they nil will agr ee that a temporizmg a11d in1lnct.re policy il disutrous 110t onl:'' to the caul!e of Jlfohibition hut to that of U:mperanct as well. The Jlre!lenl leadership ~; tand s OO•wicted of attempting to evade and confuse thi11 iKsue, The hone.;;t dry will , I know, honor more the honeet wt't than the t~ h i fty dry; and the anti·Jirohihitionist prefers, 1 know~ the four· ~quRre dry to the uncertain wet. All will join in condemning a fearful and tltnld Jlractice of evuion. Here RS before J emphasize that t he det'p question in this campaign Ia one nf contldtnce in leader11hi)-in leadt'rs. The mea11ure of the truth of what they "'"'Y is what they hue u id; the measure of what will do 11 what. they ha,·e done.